Collecting fallen leaves is an unwelcomed yearly task for many people in the United States. Many types and styles of handheld, ambulatory, and power driven rakes have been developed to ease the burden.
The following documents show representative manual and ambulatory leaf raking devices that were in existence before my invention:
Manual Rakes:
Gibbs U.S. Pat. No. 496,220 PA2 Kohler U.S. Pat. No. 1,263,255 PA2 Withington U.S. Pat. No. 1,942,629 PA2 Swiss Patentschrift 109,413 PA2 Schultze U.S. Pat. No. 1,911,535 PA2 Rose U.S. Pat. No. 2,033,451 PA2 U.K. Patent Specification 878,169 PA2 Propheter U.S. Pat. No. 2,561,754 PA2 West U.S. Pat. No. 2,713,241 PA2 Ferris U.S Pat. No. 2,998,690 PA2 Henderson U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,376 PA2 Shapland U.S Pat. No. 3,460,629 PA2 Smith U.S. Pat. No. 3,512,345 PA2 Kobashi et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,778,012 PA2 O'Neal U.S. Pat. No. 4,802,536 PA2 German Patentschrift 174,763 PA2 German Patentschrift 875,585
Ambulatory Rakes:
The following documents show representative power driven rakes and the like that use arrays of rotating tines or strikers:
Ambulatory and power driven rakes of the past use rotating tines to sweep up leaves much like automated brooms. They serve their purpose when the leaves are dry and confined to small areas. Still, picking up a large amount of dry leaves with the ambulatory or powered rakes of the past required frequent stops to empty the collected leaves. This is because the rakes did little to chop the leaves to reduce their volume during collection.
When the leaves are wet and matted, the sweeping efficiency of the rakes of the past suffers considerably. The difficulty of collection is further compounded when there is a large area to be raked. Collection becomes burdensome and extremely tiresome under these circumstances, even using powered rakes. Our environment also challenges us to find better ways to dispose of our leaves. Space for dumping leaves in public landfills and refuse collection sites is scarce. Therefore, it is becoming increasingly important to break collected leaves down to reduce their bulk. Many municipalities already altogether prohibit the dumping of leaves in public areas. There will soon come a day when all individuals must dispose of leaves on their own.
There is a need for a power rake that simplifies the yearly burden of collecting and disposing of leaves.